An ongoing series of articles on songs & performances of the early Grateful Dead.

August 13, 2009

Pre-'74 Dead Films

Someone asked me what footage exists of the early Dead, so I threw a list together of some filmed Dead shows - this is all probably common knowledge, but I thought it might be worth posting. (The first Taping Compendium also has a comprehensive Video Guide in the back, and a great informative interview with archivist John Platt.)
I'll be happy to see additions to this list if I've overlooked something - I only went up to 1974 with this list, and tried to cover what most people can see on youtube, rather than every little scrap.

(This was updated August 1, 2014. Youtube links are current as of today, but of course many will vanish or become outdated over time, so keep an eye out for alternate sources.)

The earliest film of the Dead we have is from the Acid Test video, which I think is silent footage from 12/18/65 with sound from the 1/8/66 show, along with lots of prankster stuff. The Acid Test video is available from Kesey's family: http://www.key-z.com/video.html
Unfortunately the Acid Test is blocked from youtube, with pretty much everything deleted at the moment. One partial clip is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NAV69qnOBQ
Longer clips do circulate elsewhere, for instance of the 3/19/66 show.

As you can see, most of these bits of early film are really brief glimpses, often silent footage or TV news pieces, sometimes less than a minute. Unfortunately, in cases like these, the Dead were only briefly filmed as 'local color' and it's unlikely that any full-song footage survives. Even in a more professional setting like the "Petulia" film, all 'outtakes' from that performance were junked.

After years of rumors, a "Hollywood Festival" DVD was released of the 5/24/70 show; but it doesn't look like much film exists of the Dead's show - from what I've heard the DVD mostly uses still images of the Dead, set to music, along with a few shaky, distant, out-of-focus, non-synced film bits randomly repeated throughout.
This is a good site about their appearance, with reviews:http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/Holly-dead.70.html
According to the site, "Unfortunately, the BBC TV crew who were supposed to be filming the show were allegedly dosed on Owsleys finest and the footage was unusable as the cameramen were totally out of it - so we have the Dead or their followers to blame for this event not being preserved for posterity.The only footage known to exist is two or three minutes shot by Bob Colover on standard 8, as well as a few brief shippets on a short amateur (but very well filmed) silent movie."
More remarkable news comes from David Lemieux, who reports that the Vault has: "the band rehearsing at a beautiful little theatre, where they jam an electric Man's World and an amazing version of Candyman - and, best of all, two songs from 2 cameras from the show, Good Lovin' and Casey Jones."
Here is Hard to Handle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThRhFFMQsn8

The Dead also did a short TV special in August 1970 called Calebration, doing several songs in the KQED studio - Easy Wind, Candyman, Casey Jones, Brokedown Palace, & Uncle John. It's in rather dodgy quality, with our only source a poor, wobbly, multi-gen VHS transfer, but it's still worth seeing - it hasn't been released. Multiple clips are available, this one perhaps the best quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB6b04r3NNk

A couple Winterland shows, 10/4/70 and 12/31/70, were broadcast live on KQED-TV (as quadrophonic simulcasts with KSAN and KQED-FM radio). These videos haven't been seen since; there are rumors that they still exist in the KQED vaults, but I'm skeptical. I haven't seen any evidence that the shows were ever re-broadcast, so it's possible the footage was never kept in the first place, taped over or destroyed. Michael
Parrish wrote, "I got verification from David Lemieux at one point that
neither the 10/4/70 nor the 12/31/70 video remains in either the GD or
KQED vaults." And yet, there are tantalizing hints in interviews
shortly afterward that videotapes did exist; at least, band manager Jon McIntyre
said, "There might be some tapes we can edit down. Warner Bros. wants to
edit them down and make an hour program for the BBC." See the comments here: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2013/09/grateful-dead-live-fm-broadcasts-1970.html?showComment=1395991897240#c1175122899374323985

The Dead's 6/21/71 show was filmed, and some pieces were shown on French TV. I'm not sure how much of the show survives aside from what has been broadcast. It would depend on whether the songs that weren't used for the original film were preserved - normally TV stations dumped unused footage when they filmed concerts. Parts of this show have surfaced in a mix of B&W and color, along with an interview with Garcia (overdubbed in French).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbzmRBU6Lg (1 hour) -
Morning Dew, Hard To Handle, China>Rider, Deal, Black Peter, Sugar Magnolia, Sing Me Back Home

The "Last Days of the Fillmore" DVD has Casey Jones & Johnny B Goode from 7/2/71. (Note that the DVD is not the full original film; several other bands' performances were cut out.) Unfortunately, though the Dead's whole show was filmed, the 'outtakes' were all dumped, so it's unlikely any more will be seen of that show.
Casey Jones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReEIOJBYOeA
Johnny B Goode - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNQCCKJdidk

The Dead were filmed a couple times on their Europe '72 tour. One common, excellent-quality 'bootleg' DVD that's available is "TV from the Tivoli", 80 minutes from the 4/17/72 show, which comes from a Danish TV broadcast from '72. Plenty of clips are on youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt67BUeQ1-Q
The first two sets were filmed, and perhaps it will come out on DVD someday... (Unfortunately, the third set with Dark Star was not filmed.)

There was a Bickershaw Festival DVD released some time ago, raising exciting prospects that the 5/7/72 show was also filmed - unfortunately, from what I've heard it looks like a poor-quality 'homemade' compilation, with only one Dead song, Black-Throated Wind, set to random footage.
But there's still hope that more film from 5/7/72 will come out someday.
There's a nice page about that show here:http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/dead.html
A short interview with Garcia and very brief Dead footage are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0vAqnq1vW0

From the next trip to Europe, one surprising discovery recently was the (rather dark) surviving footage from 9/21/74, 24 minutes - you can see Ned Lagin onstage next to Garcia in the second set. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-G_mOM5LbQ - China Doll, part of the Playing jam, Row Jimmy & Big River

You all know about the Grateful Dead Movie DVD with lots of extra stuff from their October '74 Winterland shows on the bonus disc. Considering how much they filmed, probably a whole extra movie could be made from the rest of the shows & backstage material...this isn't likely to happen anytime soon, though. (At least, Lemieux hasn't made it sound likely.)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQFZ7Lx-rg

And lastly, the Sunshine Daydream film of Veneta 8/27/72. Sunshine Daydream was finally released last year in an alternate edit, including Bird Song, Sing Me Back Home, and some different footage in parts.
Of course, bootleg videos of it have long been available - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UHpx72ifdE
Years before its release, here are some comments from one of the filmers:
"We were all suitably scrambled. Film magazines didn’t come fast enough because the changers had melted or become distracted, cameramen went off into enchanted but unintelligible directions of wobble and warp. By the time Jack Straw rolled around the earthquakes had slowed down and the camerawork improved. Much of the warpedness was considered unacceptable at the time but today it lends a certain authenticity.
We didn’t, by any means, shoot every song. We shot what we thought would be good candidates for the thirty minute project.
That project was hijacked by the notion that what we had was far more than a few precious stones; we had an ornament. It’s taken over thirty years for the half-life of that notion to become true. In the intervening years the film spent most of its life in the pump house of the producer, Sam Field.
**A couple of years ago, at the behest of Dennis McNally who wanted to screen it in conjunction with the release of his book, we brought it up to date, digitizing and adding two new songs to the original cut: a wonderfully emotive Bird Song and a twilight Sing Me Back Home that, because of it’s fading images, can’t help but move you.**
Most of the rest of the film is as it was the day it was set aside including the animation sequences in Dark Star which, due to lack of band footage, were patched in pretty much willy-nilly from old work print provided by Dennis Pohl, a New York filmmaker. We had intended he would create original, syncopated work for the final film.
There are still a few more miles to go, fine tuning the edit, remixing the sound, before we get to the final technical hurdle, conforming 1972 technology to current DVD standards, but with patience and perseverance this may someday, be available to all."

And this is what David Lemieux said about a possible release a few years ago:
"It's not in our hands. The people who own the film, physically own the film, who produced the original one, who have restored it and are ready to do something with it...that's about all I know, that they still have it. It's in great shape and they have put some effort into doing a good HD transfer and restoring it and preserving it. We all agree that it would be a good thing to come out some day. We do have the multi-track audio, so if ever it came out I would like to think that it would come through us so it could be mixed through a proper 5.1 mix. As it is, they can't do that. The only multi-track copy that exists is ours. The fact that it's Grateful Dead music, they would have to collaborate with us anyway. Nobody could just release something. Regardless, I agree it should come out. There's a lot of songs missing from the film and that's a product of them not filming a lot of songs. What I think would be ideal would be for it to come out on DVD, 5.1 mix, and then a three CD complete show of all released from the multi-track mix. That would be very pleasing to others and us. That's another thing. We have so little of the early era. Stuff that does exist should be given proper treatment and not just slapped together and thrown out, but really do the full Grateful Dead Movie treatment with it. Give it a 5.1 with some documentaries. Interview some of the people who were involved. I don't think it would be worth doing otherwise."

I really appreciate all of the work you have invested in this documentation.

Regarding 12/31/70 (came home from playing my first gig ever that night and caught the the second set):I contacted KQED years ago about that footage and a show they broadcast from the Filmore (date unknown, probably '69) that included the Airplane and QMS. According to them Bill Graham owned the films and would reside in his vault. Has Wolfgang's vault released any video?

The Filmore show is indelible in my memory. Some back stage footage including an interview with Jack Cassidy as he is knocking back brandy from a bota bag.

Many years ago someone testified to me that they saw b&w videotape footage of the September 19, 1970 show at Fillmore East. Apparently this footage resides on the East coast, maybe in the Maryland/DC area.

That sounds bogus to me... Of course, footage of that show (and any other Fillmore East show) COULD exist. The fragment of film from 2/14/70 is the only one that's 'gone public', but we don't know how many other videos are still lurking in Bill Graham's vaults... They would likely be pretty poor-quality, though.

oddly enough i just watched one of the newest episodes of bizzare foods (season 6 episode 7 )that was shot in san francisco and in the opening montage (talking about the bay area music scene) there was a few seconds of what looks like a show from 68 or early 69, in colour... i had never seen this footage EVER i was shocked to say the least...and i have seen most if not ALL of the footage mentioned in this blog (i even have a dvd copy of the 02-14-70 footage)I googled "early grateful dead footage" and here we are...albeit i am puzzled as where this footage came from,and why the hell was it on a sub-par reality show?... i don't think it was in the anthem to beauty doc though i might be mistaken (haven't watched it in awhile) here are some snapshots from the clip that i made

http://www.divshare.com/download/14333623-271

http://www.divshare.com/download/14333617-6f9

http://www.divshare.com/download/14333616-16c

if you have any info about this please let me know i can be reached at mivanovs@hotmail.com

Thanks for the clips! Anthem to Beauty or some other VH1-type doc is the most likely source - although I don't remember seeing this shot before either.

I'm thinking mid-'68, as the shot matches exactly (down to the rose) with a photo from "summer '68" on this site detailing Garcia's guitar history: http://dozin.com/jers/jers/guitar/history.htm I'm certain it's the same show as that photo - just a matter of finding out what show that was!

I found the show - the Newport Pop Festival, Aug 4 '68. Another shot of it is here: http://www.wald-electronics.com/images/preamp%20mods/newportpopfestival_aug_4_1968.jpg (From this page - http://www.wald-electronics.com/preampmods.html - although it's trimmed so you can't see Billy.) There are actually a few nice shots from this show: http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitar/blackgibson.jpg http://www.crawdaddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jerry-garcia.jpg http://www.dead.net/sites/deadbeta.rhino.com/files/images/19680804_0281.jpg http://media.photobucket.com/image/jerry%20garcia%20pigpen/songbuddha/pig.jpg (I think it's the same show, though the colors look different)

For any fans of Sunshine Daydream there is a Facebook page that's been set up to try and get it officially released. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150102312651584&set=a.10150102312641584.314723.788756583#!/PleaseReleaseSunshineDaydreamMovie

The page has been created by Zane Kesey and has the full backing of the owners and directors of the movie. Things have been moving along with very positive results so far. With reports from Ken Babbs that Bill Kreutzmann LOVED a recent copy that he sent to him. If the page gets enough numbers they can approach the band for permission with the intent of releasing a definite multi disc version with outtakes and interviews. If you love this movie and you love the Grateful Dead please visit the page and press LIKE.

Someone told me back in the 90s that they saw black & white footage of 9/19/70 Fillmore East, shot by the house crew. It's been decades since the conversation, and now the details are fuzzy. But I do recall him being positive about seeing this somewhere in the Maryland area.

Hmm, are you the same person who commented back in March? It would be good to have confirmation of this. Since we know 2/14/70 was filmed, it's quite possible more Fillmore East sets were filmed as well and still survive (albeit in low quality). Hopefully more details will emerge eventually...

One commenter noted that there's been an upgrade of the Monterey 6/18/67 Viola Lee posted to youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amWqLamEBkU

The soundtrack is now the stereo SBD, though edited down to match the footage. (The older soundtrack was, of course, the same tape, just a bad source, so the edits were in the same spots.)

What's interesting for me is that this is obviously not "raw" footage - the filmmakers took the time to edit & sync the film (from several cameras), even though the Dead never gave permission for the footage to be used.

Sadly, even when the Monterey DVD came out with all the extra musical performances, this still was not included, so I guess the Dead still haven't changed their minds!

A 58-minute clip of the 6/21/71 show has been on youtube for a while; here is one copy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPJX9xSuvWw

I haven't checked the links in this post lately (or for that matter, any of my old posts) - the rule of thumb is that everything's on youtube, but individual links do go down sometimes. I should probably put more updated links in here, though.

Back in the early 1970s, I was told that there is/was a great deal of GD footage for the SF Ballroom scene. I cannot prove this but from what I was told at the time, after the Dead signed with Warner Brothers, some of the young/hipper Warner film teams came up from LA and filmed like crazy. There are supposedly large metal film canisters laying around somewhere with "miles of film."

My goodness. "Miles of film..." I haven't heard of this, though. I would think, if Warners was sitting on a bunch of SF concert footage, someone would've tried to release something & make some money off it by now, or there would be some word of it. Unfortunately what we have from '67/68 is generally really short clips - usually with no sound - just bits & pieces that might show up in documentaries. I don't think there's even a good complete film compilation of that period - and the band looked dramatically different than they did later.

Maybe some more things will show up someday - like the mysterious Newport '68 film mentioned in comments above, or the 5/24/70 footage - or shows we don't even know about...

Sometime I have to update this post with a lot more links. For instance, more footage of the Newport '68 show has appeared: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJcMUMh5IA8 And more Acid Test footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NgftH2eR0E (There used to be a longer 15-minute clip of the 3-19-66 Acid Test - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q9X6TRUqfw - but unfortunately it was removed by Kesey's video company, which apparently takes down most Acid Test videos that appear. That's the trouble with youtube links; they often disappear...)

I once asked DL2 about video of the second set jam from Tivoli 72. He told me that it was not in the Vault, nor did he think it was even filmed. Do you have other information that the entire show was in fact filmed?

Good question! I wonder where I read that. The broadcast stopped before the third set, so I doubt more survives on video (if it was filmed). So no, I don't think the whole show was filmed.Maybe Lemieux was talking about the audiotape in the Vault, and I misread it.

It's from the Taping Compendium Vol 1 chapter 9 The Video and Film Guide 1959-1974.

After listing the excerpts from the Tivoli TV broadcasts on page 568 it states "More of this concert exists in the Danish television station's vaults."

Then on page 577 John Platt, "a researching archive consultant for documentaries", is being interviewed by John Dwork.

JD "There's a television station in Copenhagen that has a whole concert from Tivoli Gardens in April of 1972."

JP "Yes, they do. It's Danish National TV."

JD "I heard that the GD now have all of it but that they are having problems getting to use it from Danish TV who own the rights."

JP "They do. They filmed it, they own it. They'll just have to work out some kind of compromise. There is at least one home video with a clip from that on it that came out of England. I'm sure the rights were never cleared: it was a legal English release but from a company that was notorious for not clearing the rights with the artist. I think it was called California Screaming, but I wouldn't swear to that title. It's one of a series of sixties compilations, except the Dead of course is '72. They've got the whole show. There's the Beat club from that tour too."

JD ""Truckin'" and "Saturday Night," the latter of which was then reedited for showing on Casey Kasem and then later for MTV where they put in more psychedelic postproduction effects which actually make it look much better even though it's not very inventive."

There are a few ambiguous "they"s in there. I always read it to mean that the GD do have a complete copy but maybe only Danish TV do, either way it looks like the whole show was filmed.

It's a long time since I watched California Screaming Vol 3 which Platt refers to. I don't have the technology to watch VHS any more but I remember the GD track, "Saturday Night", as being from the Beat Club, not the Tivoli. I could be wrong. A quick clamber up to the attic only reveals the VHS was issued in 1989 by Castle Communications who I've always thought of as a legitimate cheap reissue label. John Tobler gets credited as an associate producer and as scriptwriter, he's a reputable guy. There are no performance details given and I've never seen a DVD rerelease.

Yeah, that interview may have thrown me too. I don't recall the Dark Star set being in circulation until the 2000s (though Rob Eaton wrote a review of the full show in the Compendium). So Platt & Dwork could be mistaken on Danish TV having "the whole show." It is, in any case, rather vague to say that the Danish TV vaults have "more of this concert" - there are also a few other songs missing from the video.

A couple Beat Club clips have shown up, but that's another performance where I have to wonder if the whole thing survives on video in some vault, other than the little bit that was shown on TV. We can be pretty sure it was all filmed, at least - though I don't know if Beat Club ever saved the stuff on the cutting-room floor.

I believe "Casey Kasem" had Truckin' from Tivoli and Saturday Night from Beat Club. (You can tell the Beat Club clip because it has the trippy album-cover visuals behind the band. Very different from the Tivoli Saturday Night, which has Rosie McGee dancing behind the band.)

Thanks for the followup information. I didn't realize the Dark Star, etc was actually a third set, I thought it came after Truckin' in the second set.

In any event if there is more video in Danish TV archive, you would think there would be someone to contact there who could give more definitive info on that. I would also think that if there is video in their vaults similar in quality to what circulates of the rest of the show, it would be of significant commercial interest. I would certainly buy a DVD of the whole show!

i am pretty sure more of the beatclub show is still around-- just last year an additional 1 minute clip popped up on youtubewww.youtube.com/watch?v=S0LfdneR65Qgerman television( in this case radio bremen)might never get around to air ... but i am sure there is more in the vaults at bremen

Whoa...a ONE-MINUTE clip! That was quite a tease. You're right, the entire Beat Club show survives.

What strikes me is that it was posted by Historic Films, a company that has presumably purchased the film. They've run teasers for other videos they own (for instance, they recently bought all the Festival Express reels...96 hours of footage) - anyone wanting to show or use one of these clips in a documentary now must license it from them. If you look on their website, you can see they do have the entire 4/21/72 show.http://www.historicfilms.com/

Garcia announces a short break after BTWind, and Weir announces a short break after Truckin', so Dark Star officially starts the third set!

Blair Jackson says in the CD liner notes to 4/17/72, "We'll probably never know why we only have the songs we have from that show on videotape... We know that the cameras weren't on for the third set." I think he would know, if anyone.

But he also says in the 4/21/72 liner notes that the whole 4/21 show exists on video (and should be released). I'm hoping he's right about that.

Access is problematic. The show is not available for online viewing; in fact, you can't even download a low-res version even if you pay the $100 "pro account fee" (as it's not part of the "Specialty Collections"). Their site makes clear, "Historic Films does not provide films to collectors or for home/private use... Our footage is available for licensing in all media to professional film producers, television productions, ad agencies, corporate producers and documentary film makers." If you have a minimum of $600 to spare (for an hour-long show, it's probably a lot more), and have details on your company & the production you want to use the footage for (see http://www.historicfilms.com/pages/licenseAgreement ), then you can get the performance. What legal actions you may face if the show then happens to be leaked to the world, I can't say.

I failed to mention it earlier, but a more complete video (2 1/2 songs) from 2/14/70 has surfaced from the same source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz-rbYmQJDk Hard to Handle, Been All Around This World, & Dark Star/ Probably more survives as well, but doesn't circulate yet.

See the discussion here: http://archive.org/post/435963/team-fillmore-east

I can add a few to your list. I hope none are repeats, I've tried to cull them out, but that's a long thread for someone with my limited attention span.

a) Sunshine Daydream does circulate. I doubt the version I have is "official"b) Woodstock 69-08-16 exists except for Dark Starc) The 70-02-14 clip I have (really bad, handheld) ends with the band "Love" doing 1 song. The Allman Bros also played that show.d) I have the Hollywood Festival movie, but I have trouble extracting it right now. If memory serves, it's not coherent - music playing over still images or something like that.e) The short film by Mickey Hart's son called "Backstage Pass" has some old footage in it.f) There is a clip called "Calebration" from a public television studio 70-08-30 - B & W with psychedelic effects. Easy Wind, Candyman, Casey Jones, Brokedown Palace, Uncle John's band. Parts are degraded and warbly.g) There is also a clip called "Home Movies" that is a collection of just that - clips from a color 16 mm movie camera of the Dead on stage, clowning around, canoeing, etc. with a soundtrack of what sounds like a circa '68 jam. At the end it simply says - "by Robert Nelson"

Thanks for the list!a) Maybe Sunshine Daydream will finally be official when we're much older & grayer... Til then, there are plenty of unofficial copies circulating. b) It's odd that the Stephen>Mama Tried, High Time & Lovelight from Woodstock are available on film, but not the Dark Star. (Which, though, has been officially released on a CD set.) I had a discussion on the Archive forum a while ago which showed that the available audio/video of Stephen has actually been edited.c) I wondered if more was available from the 2/14/70 video than those 2 1/2 songs. More must have been filmed. d) As I recall, the DVD of the Hollywood Fest does just have music over still images, as far as the Dead are concerned. Which is unfortunate. I'd really like to see the rehearsal/film footage Lemieux says is in the Vault. e) I've never gone through Backstage Pass to place the footage (or the Anthem to Beauty documentary either) - there's lots of brief snippets of old clips, many of them unknown to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EguGHFOnzaA f) Calebration is well-known, not great quality but it'll do. g) Robert Nelson did make a short avant-garde film of the Dead in 1967; the soundtrack varies on different copies, but it's very trippy, with very brief flashing images of the band.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0iULSnZUkg

The footage of the Dead at Columbia 5/3/68 is great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_3kAdz5AdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnU2gZeLpxk Looks like it must have been one of the best Dead shows ever filmed...but only in snippets of silent footage, alas!

A welcome upgrade to the 9-21-74 footage has been posted - though it still looks really crappy, and there's only 24 minutes of it, still you get to see Ned Lagin onstage next to Garcia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-G_mOM5LbQ China Doll, an excerpt from the Playing jam, Row Jimmy, Big River

And this was the discussion of the Woodstock St. Stephen I had on the Archive: http://archive.org/post/418678/woodstock-saint-stephen-cut-or-did-they-really-just-bail-out The second verse of Stephen, oddly, is edited out on both the audio & video. Something strange must have happened...

Since the footage isn't labeled, I made an educated guess as to the date and location based on a few clues.

In the video you see Bear carrying and setting up equipment. He started doing the sound soon after 1-29-66, but he missed the 2-6-66 Test. "Only one other one did I miss, the first one in LA in late Feb in Northridge. So I missed a total of five of the AT's." http://www.goodbear.com/1966setlists.html Then he split from the band after the Vancouver Test. So that leaves five possible dates:

Viola was played at two of them 3-19 & 7-30. Hugh Romney, seen in the video, was not at the Vancouver Test http://www.postertrip.com/public/images/5589a.jpg but he was at Carthay http://www.postertrip.com/members/images/3390a.jpg

Lastly, a quote from Carol Brightman "In these harum-scarem scenes from kesey's videotape, which is pastiche of the Fillmore Acid Test and another one in Los Angeles" Sweet Chaos - Grateful Dead American Adventure - Pages 13-16

I forgot to say that the reason I put it together was because of a ten second clip in the vid. You can see it for yourself at the 3:45 mark, they are playing Viola. I used the 12/1/66 version cause I like it better lol

This is from kesey's video but just from another source. It's from the end of the Kesey Egypt video. They're pretty much all the same, and most people have seen the color footage that's usually interspersed with the stuff I used. This color footage is what I think is the 12/8/66 Muir Beach test. The doors at the place are so big they drove the bus inside. This seems more like a lodge than an auditorium in the second level of a building.

There's a nice assemblage of Bickershaw 72-5-7 footage that I've not seen before in such good quality. The sound is dubbed and there's less Dead visuals than we'd like but it's well worth watching all the same.

The Bickershaw video is just a creative diversion that I undertake every once in a while. Besides the previously mentioned Acid Test video, there's a few more like those on my channel. The next one is going to be another Viola, this one is from the Human Be-In 1/14/67.

I found part of a Lovelight from the Festival Express tour! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJhnOq2q3ag It's from the same show as Don't Ease, New Speedway & Hard to Handle in the Festival Express video - Toronto 6/27/70.

There are some new additions here, particularly the silent-film clips at the beginning. One of my own favorites is 5/11/69 - you can see Garcia in his brief mustache phase, digging Santana's set by the edge of the stage. Garcia is extremely animated in his playing, perhaps more than in any other video, bopping around the stage & flailing the guitar. (Meanwhile Pigpen bangs away on the congas.) It looks like brief shots of Morning Dew & the Other One.

Also looking at the Woodstock Lovelight... Not one of the better versions (Garcia's not in good form, and the guest speaker is really annoying), but it does get a bit more interesting in the second half, particularly the finale. They're trying SO hard to get a groove going... We get a very good look at the guest - I don't know who he is? (Definitely not Ken Babbs.) Note that despite his babblings, no one in the band seems to pay him any mind. (Nor do they mind the other guy dancing across the stage in everyone's way.) We also get a good look at TC, who seems to be sporting a beard. While Pigpen raps, he and Weir clap along... Pigpen plays the congas during the jam. There's a long Garcia duet with the drummers; he stands by the drummers bobbing his head. At the end, Mickey Hart sets off a little explosion - I think that's his toy cannon. Witnesses of early shows recalled on the deadlists forum, "When I saw the Dead circa '68-'69, there was a "toy" cannon on stage by the drums--Mickey Hart yanked the cord during the critical moment in St. Stephen: Boom!!! ... Mickey used the cannon in St. Stephen when I saw them in '69 and '70 quite often, although not at all shows."

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it but I just came across a youtube post of 73 Nassau when they wore the Nudie suits. No sound, but you can just pop a tape on. Looks like it's been there a year now.

This clip of the Columbia U 5/3/68 show is the longest and most complete, including Pigpen singing a song on the organ, and the Other One at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq8sp6WF3bQ It does not include all the shots from the other clips, though, so perhaps there were multiple cameras. At some point someone should edit together the definitive version of this show from all the sources!

2 more comments: A little while back on youtube, there was a 60 minutes/ interview with Janis Joplin, that had a short clip of the Dead playing The Other One, to me it sounded like part of a TIFTOO suite, supposedly from the Fillmore with lights behind the band. It was very cool, but has been since taken down. If anyone captured it, I would love to get a copy. And it makes you wonder what Fillmore show was videotaped from that era?And I bet most people know by now, but the 4/21/72 Beat Club will be shown in the movie theaters in midJuly this summer! Man, I hope they release it for purchase!

so apparently the interview took place on 2/11/69! So amazing to think that some of that show was filmed. I guess if it was done by the 60 Minutes crew for the broadcast, they probably didn't record more than they needed for the clip

It is a shame that 2/11/69 clip got pulled off youtube. Hopefully someone else will upload it someday. And yes, it's certain that any footage not used in the broadcast was discarded, unfortunately. Though I doubt they would have filmed much of the Dead in the first place.

Very cool, a few minutes on film of a '69 Dark Star! Granted, a rather dark clip of a subpar Star, but still....a little better quality than the 2/14/70 footage. (And the same camera angle, coincidentally.) It's striking to see the guitarists facing each other, apparently concentrating hard on trying to get this Dark Star off the ground. There's also a glimpse of Pigpen tapping on congas or something.And the baby onstage at the end is a hoot.

A tiny b&w snatch of one of the Dead's shows at the Straight Theater, September 29-30, 1967 has surfaced - about 50 distorted seconds of Dancing in the Streets, and a bit of the jam: http://ihavenorecollectionofthis.tumblr.com/post/100178277396/99-sure-this-is-mickeys-first-gig-on-september

There's also an unknown poet reciting before the band - a nice '60s touch, which of course reminds me a bit of Casady's 7/23/67 rap with the Dead at the Straight Theater.

More stray '67 footage from Oddball Films has been found - the Dead playing in the Panhandle to a dancing crowd - thanks to the JGMF site for pointing it out: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/11/dead-in-panhandle-sunday-april-9-1967.html

For one, 4/9 was a Sunday, and 4/20 a Thursday - not the best day to arrange an afternoon park concert, you'd think, and one drawing a pretty big crowd too. Also, JGMF identified the footage as 4/9 when he listed it in his blog: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/11/dead-in-panhandle-sunday-april-9-1967.html A "well-documented" 4/9 Panhandle concert is listed on the Lost Live Dead concert list for early '67, but there is nothing listed for 4/20, probably because the writer hadn't found any concrete evidence for that date: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/01/january-april-1967-grateful-dead.html

Nonetheless, Getty Images does date their footage 4/20, and it looks like the same performance. My guess is this is the date of the TV broadcast, with more clips from the show seen on this page: http://www.itnsource.com/en/compilations/faith,-history-politics/events/lr/S23020702/1967-Summer-of-Love-and-Hippies-Footage/

By the way, the few seconds of audio from the Dancin' jam in the clip is really great. I wish these TV crews had left their cameras rolling longer!

I was thinking that it's all the same date as the hippie temptation with Harry and that it was never planned. First a spontaneous gathering on Haight then "Today there is no violence and there's a reason for this. The band called the GD have announced they will make music in the park." So it could have been Thursday. I guess I just came at it from the other side.

I was also wondering whether this was actually the same date that the "Hippie Temptation" clip was filmed.... (The Dead look like they have the same clothes & "stage" setup in the two clips, but the background behind them is different - a building in the 4/9 footage, but trees in "Hippie Temptation.") I haven't intently studied this issue, though....

Light Into Ashes, thanks for mentioning my "Grateful Dead Video Links" page. I thought I would pass on a couple of items: (1) I recently moved that page to http://danb.altervista.org/videovault.htm and (2) happily, the excellent Voodoonola edit of Beat Club 4/21/72 finally got re-uploaded to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Uu57h7H18 (who knows how long it will stay available?)

Another good '67 clip to add - almost half an hour of the Human Be-In, 1/14/67, with the Dead appearing for about four minutes in the middle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGyFgyB5Q8&t=13m13s We get parts of a raucous Dancing in the Street and Viola Lee, from the side of the stage, with some nice footage of Rosie McGee dancing. There's a bit of the break after Viola Lee that isn't on our tape - someone says "last one, Jerry," and Allen Ginsberg announces a lost child as the band doodles - then there's a tiny fragment of Schoolgirl.